Each month, the Clinton School of Public Service provides engaging public programs covering a myriad of issues, and this month is no different. September's schedule includes speakers on topics like the American race to the moon, 9/11 and the #MeToo movement.

Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or by calling (501) 683-5239. And if you can't attend in person, you can live stream most programs by clicking here.

The Clinton School of Public Service and Clinton Foundation are pleased to present the next Frank and Kula Kumpuris Distinguished Lecture featuring The Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was born in Brooklyn, New York, March 15, 1933. She married Martin D. Ginsburg in 1954, and has a daughter, Jane, and a son, James. She received her B.A. from Cornell University, attended Harvard Law School, and received her LL.B. from Columbia Law School.

She was appointed a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1980. President Bill Clinton nominated her as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. After receiving unanimous confirmation from the U.S. Senate, she took her seat Aug. 10, 1993.

Panel Discussion with The Rep on "Million Dollar Quartet"

Sept. 5, noon in Sturgis Hall | In partnership with The Rep

Four musical legends. A one-in-a-million recording session.

On Dec. 4, 1956, in the studios of Sun Records in Memphis, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis gathered to meet with legendary producer Sam Philips. What happened next was pure rock and roll magic.

A casual introduction of Lewis to Perkins unexpectedly evolved into an epic jam session of country, gospel and rock classics, captured on tape but not released until 1981.

With a collection of hit songs that includes “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Great Balls of Fire” and “Hound Dog,” this Tony Award-winning musical is guaranteed to blow the roof off!

So put a nickel in the jukebox and prepare for a blast from the past that will have you dancing in the aisles!

Join us for a discussion with the cast and crew.

Moderated Discussion on Security and Economic Issues in North Asia with Congressman French Hill

Sept. 6, noon in Sturgis Hall

Join us for a discussion on the security and economic issues with North Asia with Congressman French Hill and Mansfield Foundation President and CEO Frank Jannuzi. It will include a security discussion on North Korea, the trilateral economic and security relationship with Japan and South Korea and the hybrid security-economic issues with China.

French Hill is the 22nd member of congress to represent central Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected on Nov. 4, 2014, and began his first congressional term in the 114th congress on Jan. 3, 2015. He won reelection to serve in the 115th and 116th sessions of congress.

He is a member of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services where he serves as ranking member of the newly formed Task Force on Financial Technology (FinTech) and the Task Force on Artificial Intelligence (AI). In 2019, Rep. Hill was selected to be a member of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) Republican House Whip Team.

Prior to his congressional service, Rep. Hill was actively engaged in the Arkansas business community for two decades as a commercial banker and investment manager. He was founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Delta Trust & Banking Corp., which was headquartered in Little Rock and recently merged with Arkansas-based Simmons First National Corp.

Frank Jannuzi joined the Mansfield Foundation as president and CEO in April 2014. He previously served as deputy executive director (advocacy, policy and research) at Amnesty International, USA. There he shaped and promoted legislation and policies to advance universal human rights, protect individuals and communities at risk and free prisoners of conscience.

From 1997-2012 Mr. Jannuzi was policy director for East Asian and Pacific affairs for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he advised Committee Chairmen Joseph Biden and John Kerry on a range of security, political, economic, and human rights issues pertinent to U.S. relations with East Asia. During his tenure with the Foreign Relations Committee he also was a Hitachi Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations from 2006-2007, serving as a visiting lecturer at Keio University and a visiting scholar at the Institute of International Policy Studies in Tokyo. Early in his career he served for nine years as an analyst in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

Jannuzi holds a bachelor of arts degree from Yale University and a masters in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He has traveled throughout Asia and has written extensively on East Asia policy issues, including U.S. relations with Japan, China and North Korea. He lives in Baltimore with his wife Dr. Jennifer Martin and their two daughters Zoe and Camill.

Little Rock Paper Airplane Festival

Sept. 7, 10 a.m. in Sturgis Hall

The Little Rock Paper Airplane Festival is a fun, family-friendly event featuring paper airplane contests for both distance and hang time. Prizes will be awarded in age groups of 6 and under, 7 to 12, 13 to 18 and adult. This fun event for children and adults will benefit the Lymphomaniac Society, which provides respite trips for cancer survivors and their caregiver upon completion of treatment.

The event will include special guest John Collins, paper airplane world record holder.

Early registration is $20 and registrants will be entered into both the distance and hang time competition. Registration will increase to $25 on the day of the event. Register at lrpaperairplane.com.

"The Only Plane in the Sky" with Garrett Graff

Sept. 16, 6 p.m. in Sturgis Hall | Book signing to follow

“The Only Plane in the Sky” represents the first comprehensive oral history of the American experience on Sept. 11, pulling together 500 oral histories from New York, the Pentagon and Shanksville, as well as air traffic controllers, fighter pilots, on Capitol Hill, families of victims and so forth, as well as a lot of unexpected perspectives too — the captain of the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier, a guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and what it was like to be a child and college student across the country that day.

It's a unique and illuminating perspective on a day that forever changed our country told only in the voices of those who lived it.

"A Streetcar Named Desire" within the Context of #MeToo

In partnership with Argenta Community Theater, the Acansa Arts Festival of the South is proud to present Tennessee Williams’ timeless masterpiece, "A Streetcar Named Desire." Seeking solace from her crumbling world, Blanche arrives at her sister Stella’s apartment bringing her face to face with the menacing masculinity of Stanley Kowalski. Directed by Clinton School student Ben Grimes, the production is a raw exploration of family, sexuality, gender roles and survival.

A community conversation will be led by Dr. Virginia O. Craighill, Professor of English from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.

"The Long Southern Strategy" with Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields

The Southern Strategy is traditionally understood as a Goldwater and Nixon-era effort by the Republican Party to win over disaffected white voters in the Democratic stronghold of the American South. To realign these voters with the GOP, the party abandoned its past support for civil rights and used racially coded language to capitalize on southern white racial angst. However, that decision was but one in a series of decisions the GOP made not just on race, but on feminism and religion as well, in what Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields call the "Long Southern Strategy."

In the wake of second-wave feminism, the GOP dropped the Equal Rights Amendment from its platform and promoted traditional gender roles in an effort to appeal to anti-feminist white southerners, particularly women. And when the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention became increasingly fundamentalist and politically active, the GOP tied its fate to the Christian Right. With original, extensive data on national and regional opinions and voting behavior, Maxwell and Shields show why all three of those decisions were necessary for the South to turn from blue to red.

To make inroads in the South, however, GOP politicians not only had to take these positions, but they also had to sell them with a southern "accent." Republicans embodied southern white culture by emphasizing an "us vs. them" outlook, preaching absolutes, accusing the media of bias, prioritizing identity over the economy, encouraging defensiveness and championing a politics of retribution. In doing so, the GOP nationalized southern white identity, rebranded itself to the country at large and fundamentally altered the vision and tone of American politics.

"American Moonshot" with Douglas Brinkley

Sept. 20, 6 p.m. in Sturgis Hall | Book signing to follow

After the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing passes, the award-winning historian and perennial New York Times bestselling author takes a fresh look at the space program, President John F. Kennedy’s inspiring challenge and America’s race to the moon.

“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.” - President John F. Kennedy

On May 25, 1961, JFK made an astonishing announcement: his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In this engrossing, fast-paced epic, Douglas Brinkley returns to the 1960s to recreate one of the most exciting and ambitious achievements in the history of humankind. "American Moonshot" brings together the extraordinary political, cultural and scientific factors that fueled the birth and development of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, which shot the U.S. to victory in the space race against the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

"Beyond the Shootout: 50 Years of Football’s Life Lessons" with Mark McDonald

Sept. 24, noon in Sturgis Hall | Book signing to follow

Right after the game, your life changed, everything changed — recruiting of black athletes in Dixie, new safety rules in football, tighter crowd control, more TV coverage and bigger money in college athletics… Suddenly, for the Arkansas Razorbacks, Texas Longhorns and players and coaches nationwide, bulbs on a scoreboard no longer defined them. Instead, life came rushing at them.

In a blur, these superior, highly trained athletes were no longer football stars. They were fathers, community leaders, victims of car wrecks and cancer, businesses and marriages gone bad. Some Saturday’s heroes lost their way, others used football to find faith. The competition took on new and different meaning. Who could have predicted such outcomes?

It’s all here, in the words of those who lived this epic journey, supported by dozens of period photos and clever original illustrations from award-winning artist Bill DeOre. In his "Beyond The Big Shootout – 50 Years of Football’s Life Lessons," author Mark S. McDonald has emerged from his own football past to create a historical narrative on a giant canvas unlike any other.

For some, the game itself was cruelly damaging. For others, it brought dance-in-the-street joy. But today, looking back, who really won? Was there really a loser?

After reading this one, you will know.

U.S. Supreme Court Update

Sept. 30, noon in Sturgis Hall | In partnership with the UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law

On the first Monday of every October, the U.S. Supreme Court begins its new term. Dean of the UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law Theresa Beiner and Dean Emeritus John DiPippa will review the most important cases from last year’s term and highlight the most interesting cases to watch.

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